Illuminated Bible from 1398-1404 (c. 232v, began in Pisa in 5158 [1398] and finished in Perugia Tuesday 11th of Tishri 5165 [25 September 1404]) · membr., Membranous guards · cc. 233 + 1 · 220 × 156 mm (c. 1). Writing and hands: Daniel the scribe, the son of the physician, Shemuel the son of Daniel, the dayyan; Italian square on two columns. Condition: very good.
Decoration: 1398-1404; Initials: ornate; Pages: 30 illustrated (cc. 1r-30r), the cards are illuminated with friezes flower and botanical decorations, with old-fashioned ornaments along the inner margins, on top and outside where one finds sections of the written text. The miniatures form different frames depending on the text on the page.
Among the ornaments one find imaginary animals and other mythological characters. C. 1r: golden crown on top, children at play; C. 1v: a monkey and a goat (?); C. 2r: a mythological bird and a greyhound with wind instrument; C. 2v: a human figure with drum in the middle and on either side of a mythological rooster and a greyhound; C. 3r: a figure half man, half animal that plays the bagpipes, with at the sides two mythological birds; C. 3v: Two birds at the top and two at the bottom; C. 4r: a half man- half animal figure and a bird that spits fire at the top, bottom two birds; C. 4v: a hunter with a bow and an animal on the run; c. 5r: the struggle of archers at the top and two mythological birds below; C. 5v: a dog and a mythical bird; C. 6r: mythological animals with wind instruments; C. 6v: a half man and half animal figure with a drum and human figure with wind instrument; C. 7r: knights fights; C. 7v: above a rabbit (or hare?) And a crab, down two riders struggling with a snake; C. 8r: decoration with flowers; C. 9r: a rooster at the top where the decoration seems incomplete and bottom two birds; C. 10r: : At the top, a man’s face, from which spring floral decorations, below a bird fights with a man who defends himself with a shield; C. 10s: a unicorn and a bird on top, a snake and an animal figure with a human head below; C. 11r: a woman spinner, a half man, half squirrel figure with wind instrument and flags; C. 11v: birds at the top and bottom, at the bottom a half man, half animal figure with dagger and pointed hat; C. 12r: figures of birds at the top, at the bottom a cat; C. 12v: birds; C. 13r: above a rooster and a greyhound, below a man from the waist up that throws a stone at a dragon with open jaws; C. 13v: human figure with basket at the top center, with two of the sides, at the bottom a black bull (?); C. 14r: a monkey and a greyhound at the top, a bird in the middle, below , two headless animals, at the bottom of the page, a man’s head; C. 14v: a devil with to his right a dragon with open jaws and on the left, a bird, a fish under the dragon, at the bottom of the page: a cricket; C. 15r: top two wrestlers and bottom of the page a figure half bird and half animal with hairy legs; C. 15v: a fish with human head in the upper right and a bird on the left, two birds at the bottom; C. 16r: human figures with hats and wings (angels?) Playing the violin at the top and at the bottom a bird; C. 16v: two figures half man and half animal holding a shield with written text and above, a drawing of a human figure, below, a bird and a dragon; C. 17r: top, two warriors, below a wolf and an ox eating together; C. 17v: on the upper right corner a lion and on the left, an eagle, at the center a bird and below another a bird and an animal figure with the open jaws; C. 18r At the top, two knights fighting, and below a spotted bird C. 18v: top, figure of a man with hat in the middle and the two birds at his sides; C. 19r: two birds at the top and at the bottom, a goat; C. 19v: an oil salesman who pushes his donkey with a barrel with a tap; C. 20r: top a wolf growling at a rabbit , below, a knight fighting against a dragon; C. 20v: above a rooster holding the helm (?) of a sailboat, below an archer aiming at a bird; C. 21r: a unicorn who struggles with a knight armed with sword and shield; C. 21v: two birds at the top; C. 22r: a bird in the upper right corner fights against a dragon with open jaws to the left, below to the right, a bird with a human head and on the left and a bird; C. 22v (before Genesis): illuminated coat of arms: a rampant lion in front of a shield under which it reads: (…) Daniel (…) son of Shemuel the doctor (…); C. 23r: early Genesis, floral and animal frieze with putti at the bottom; CC. 23v-30r: floral, botanicals and animals; gold and blue; Tuscan or Umbrian Hebrew school. Binding: 1400; cardboard axes; covered in parchment; laces and / or ribs. History: In the colophon (c. 232v) it reads: וחתחיל לכתוב בעיר פיסה המהוללה שנת קנח לפרטי ונשלם לנקד והמסורת הנה בפירושא היום יום ג יא החודש תשרי שנת קסה … דניאל יזי”י בכמ”ר שמואל הרופא זצ”ל בכמ ” ר דניאל.
Daniel ben Shemu’el. Copyist active in Bertinoro around 1390, in Pisa at least until 1398, then in Perugia.
Printed Bibliography: V. Antonioli Martelli, L. Mortara Ottolenghi, Hebrew biblical manuscripts decorated from public and private Italian libraries catalog of the ordered exhibition at the Library Trivulziana, Castello Sforzesco, Milan, 2/28 March 1966, No. 55-56 . 10, pl. b / n 9. T.
Metzger, D. Metzger, La vie juive au Moyen Age: illustrée par les manuscrits hébraïques enluminés du XIIIe au XVIe siècle, Fribourg 1982, 314, n. 247, ill. 38, 236, 282, 303, 328.
Sources: A. Toaff, Jews in Perugia, Perugia in 1975.
Reproductions: Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, Jerusalem: F 33551; photographic reproduction by the Veneto Region in 2012.
Illuminate Torah, Venice 1398-1404, Renato Maestro Library.
